Jackson Bunch Hurls What Might Be Surfing’s Biggest Backflip Yet (Video)

There’s no cool story about the origins of the backflip.

So, online trolls created one. They told the totally fabricated tale of one John H. Backflip, who performed the maneuver for King Edward II on Christmas Day in 1316. Backflip was later exiled. By whom, you ask? William Frontflip, of course.

As for backflips in surfing, their origins can be traced through a careful history of slowly inverting air reverses, combined with the once-popular rodeo clown maneuver. But straight-up backflips are still pretty rare – and especially ones like the below.

Here, Hawaii’s Jackson Bunch punts, as the title suggests, what might quite possibly be: “The biggest backflip surfing has ever seen!!”

The video comes from the brothers Colapinto – Griffin and Crosby – and features a highlight reel from the North Shore of Oahu’s aquatic skatepark, Rocky Point. Captioning the clip, the Cola Bros write: “Always a great time in Hawaii. We got lucky and scored firing Rocky Point with no one out. We also got to witness our friend Jackson Bunch throw the biggest backflip we've ever seen.”

As for Bunch, he didn’t have much to say about the nearly landed backflip. Just, “I need to make it next time.” We sure hope he does, too.

The flip itself is quite big. The biggest, though? Who knows. For reference, and a little history, here’s backflip forefather, Flynn Novak, busting the maneuver (which he called the “Flynnstone Flip”) 16 years ago at the very same spot.

Last season, Bunch was a rookie on the Championship Tour. Before his inaugural crack on the big stage, SURFER caught up with the high-flying Hawaiian:

“Going into these contests coming up I don’t want to stress myself out too much,” Bunch said. “I want to enjoy it and take everything seriously, but not hold onto any of the losses because it’s going to be a really big learning experience for me.”

“To start a new journey at home in Hawaii is super special and Pipe is such an amazing wave with so much Hawaiian history. I’m just excited to represent Hawaii as best I can and do what I do at Pipeline.”

More importantly, what do we think about backflips in surfing?